Ice skating fundraiser brings in €9,600 for Teen Challenge Moldova

Our ice skating fundraiser on Lake Weissensee in Austria on Friday, January 23rd, brought in a fantastic €9,600. This will be donated entirely to the Teen Challenge drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Falesti, Moldova.

On that day, Krijn Donk skated 200km in nine hours. A remarkable achievement, especially considering that two weeks earlier, he had fallen at an ice rink in the Netherlands and sustained a knee injury. Krijn reflects:

"It was a tough day with beautiful weather and fairly good ice. The temperature was -11C at the start. What I was most afraid of was that my knee wouldn't hold up to the 200km. But it didn't bother me; it didn't even swell! Praise the Lord, because prayers were made for that. Thank you all."

Two years ago, Krijn visited the Teen Challenge men's center in Moldova, having skated for them before. "The directors found such a skating event unimaginable, skating 200km in one day!" said Krijn.

"I was able to explain that God gives me the strength to do this and that He blesses each giver. And also that the amount of money they receive is a gift from God. They could confirm that and understood why I do such things."

Worldwide, there are approximately 1,400 Teen Challenge centers in 140 countries. Men and women with all kinds of life-threatening problems can go there and (often) get to know the Bible and the love and grace of Jesus Christ for the first time. The students often stay in the program for a year or longer. They cook, take care of vegetable gardens and animals, and study according to a curriculum.

Traveling Light supports dozens of these centers in Europe... with prayer, finances, and visits. We'd like to sincerely thank everyone for their contributions to this fundraising campaign. Without your support, it wouldn't have been possible. You've invested in transformed lives; never forget that.

We are always happy with your donations. Make them payable to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. You can also give by card or donate directly via our website!

Project support for Teen Challenge Austria

Last November, during the European Teen Challenge leadership conference in Romania, we had the opportunity and time to catch up with Mirko Mitrovic from Teen Challenge in Austria.

Mirko and his wife, Maria, are the directors of 'Reset' Teen Challenge in Austria. Mirko is originally from Serbia, where he himself went through the Teen Challenge program to overcome his addictions.

This program also served as his first encounter with God's love.

It's been a few years since we supported Teen Challenge's work in Vienna with a financial donation. The work there has undergone significant development, and of course, it wasn't without its challenges.

But now there's a women's rehab center, a coffee house program, and weekly street outreach. There are more homeless people and men/women with addiction problems in Vienna than we can imagine. Mirko brings hope with his own testimony.

He also teaches drug and alcohol prevention classes at schools, and he can be invited to present Teen Challenge's work in churches.

We wholeheartedly support the work of the 'Reset' team. Their work relies partly on donations, and we'd love to contribute to bringing HOPE to the homeless, addicts, and prostitutes in Austria.

If you have a heart for this work, you can send a donation in different ways:

💛Send your financial gift to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC AUSTRIA

💳 Give by card

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

🔔When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC AUSTRIA

Project updates

Today was the day: Krijn Donk skated the 200km on Lake Weissensee in Austria. He did it in 9 hours. With his campaign, he wants to raise money for the Teen Challenge men's rehab center in Falesti, Moldova.

Well, he's definitely succeeding, because over €6,000 has already been raised, and donations are still coming in—fantastic, of course!

It was -11°C when he stood at the starting line at 7:00 AM this morning. A more detailed report and, of course, the final proceeds of this campaign will follow soon.

You can still sponsor his tremendous efforts to help the guys in Moldova. You can do so directly through our website or by transferring your donation to NL91RABO0118582275, payable to Traveling Light with the reference "Weissensee."

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Last Saturday, we (Jan and Marja) attended a special meeting of Transform Iran. This is the organization we have been supporting for years with their Operation Christmas Joy project, specifically for children.

The organization has been around for 35 years, and it was time to transfer leadership. The festive service concluded with a meal. It was very encouraging for us to see and hear that Iranians are full of hope that the current regime in Iran will fall and the door for the Gospel will open. We pray that this will not take much longer.

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This month, the proceeds from Twinkeltje and De Schor will be saved for the work of Sokrat & Lena Apostolovski among Roma children in Skopje, Macedonia. These dear people have been doing this children's ministry for many years.

They've long wanted a dedicated space so they don't have to move around all the time. This year, they started a fundraising campaign to purchase a building. We'd love to help them with that, of course! So come visit us. Your purchases always go to a good cause.

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We are always happy with your donations. Make it payable to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. You can also give by card or donate directly via our website!

Project 2nd men's home Teen Challenge Albania

About one and a half months ago, we received a message from our friends at Teen Challenge Albania. Director Orges Hysenaj wrote:

"We are deeply grateful for all that God is doing in our ministry. Our current residential center Streha is full!

Every week, we witness powerful transformations as tears of pain turn into tears of hope and joy, families are restored, and men begin a new life with Christ through baptism and discipleship. At the same time, we meet individuals each week who are ready to enter the program, and the need continues to grow.

Because of this, we have taken an important step of faith: we have secured another village house right next to our current center, which will allow us to add 10 more beds to our capacity."

A year ago, we wrote about our visit to Teen Challenge Albania [read it HERE]. We saw with our own eyes how packed the rehab center is. There are plans to build a completely new center, but we're not there yet.

Opening a second home is therefore the best option for now, well...  unless you want to leave men with addiction problems in the streets. The house is currently nothing more than an open hall and it requires significant renovation to function as a residential center.

The goal is to have it ready as soon as possible so that the first men can be welcomed this month. Funding is urgently needed to complete the renovation and fully furnish the space.

What needs to be done and/or purchased? Installing partition walls (plaster) to create rooms, new doors and windows, showers and other essential installations, furniture, beds and mattresses, etc. They have estimated that  €4,000 or €5,000 will help them significantly.

Of course, we want to help Teen Challenge Albania with this expansion project. We hope you will help as well! You can send a donation in different ways:

💛Send your financial gift to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U and make sure to mention TC ALBANIA.

💳 Give by card

👉You can also donate directly via our website!

🔔When in the USA, make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC ALBANIA

Weissensee 2026 fundraiser for Teen Challenge Falesti, Moldova

January is always an exciting month for Traveling Light, because we have our biggest fundraising event of the year.

Depending on ice conditions, marathon ice skater Krijn Donk will skate on Lake Weissensee in Austria on Friday, January 23rd, or Monday, January 26th.

Krijn has been training for months for the 200 km (!) tour, just like he does every year.

He wants to raise funds with his athletic achievement for the Teen Challenge men's rehab home in Falesti, Moldova.

He has skated for them before, but that was years ago. The Teen Challenge home in Falesti is a Christian rehabilitation center for men who struggle with addictions and other life-threatening problems.

They can live there, work with their hands, and above all, have an encounter with the living God and start a new life!

Because this type of Christian ministry depends on donations, they strive for self-sufficiency as much as possible. For example, by growing their own vegetables and raising animals.

But of course, running such a house with 10-15 men always requires funding.

Moldova struggles with large numbers of alcohol and drug addicts, and there is always a need to expand the number of beds. To this end, a second floor was added to the existing house a few years ago with the help of a team from Teen Challenge in the Czech Republic.

Krijn, Cora, Jan, and Marja visited in December 2023. Now, two years later, the new floor has unfortunately not yet been officially opened.

As you can see in the pictures, much has been completed, but electricity has not yet been connected, and sanitary facilities need to be installed. This must be done by professionals (click on the photos to enlarge).

How wonderful it would be if the funds raised by "our" plumber Krijn Donk could be used to finally bring this project to a successful conclusion.

This year, Krijn will be skating for the 14th time in favor of one of Traveling Light's projects. This skating season, he has already completed over 4,000 laps on the 400-meter ice rink in the Netherlands, and he feels fit to take on this upcoming battle with the elements.

We are confident that a substantial amount will be raised again this year through sponsorship. This amount will be fully donated to the Teen Challenge Falesti project.

We hope you are willing to sponsor Krijn with an amount per kilometer, an amount for reaching the finish, or a general donation.

If you decide to participate, please send an email specifying your donation amount to krijncora@gmail.com.

You can send your donation in different ways:

• 💛By bank transfer to St. Traveling Light, Papendrecht IBAN: NL91RABO0118582275 BIC: RABONL2U. Make sure to mention WEISSENSEE.
• 💳 Give by card
• 💡Donate directly via our website!
• 👉When in the USA, you can make your tax-deductible gift payable to EEO Inc. Make sure to mention TC Moldova.

We'll leave the ice skating up to Krijn, but we need your support to make this a successful campaign for Teen Challenge Moldova.